Colloidally deposited nanoparticle wires for biophysical detection*
Shen Sophie C.a), Liu Wen-Taob), Diao Jia-Jie†c)
       
Illustration of colloidal deposition at the air–liquid–solid interface to produce nanoparticle wires. (a) The meniscus region of a vertical evaporation-driven colloidal deposition (VECD) system. When the deposition is uninterrupted, a continuous nanoparticle thin film is formed as a 2D nanoparticle structure. When the deposition is interrupted by rapid removal of a small quantity of the suspension, a 1D structure of nanoparticle wires is formed. The inset is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of a gold nanoparticle wire made by discontinuous VECD. (b) Schematics of the process of building integrated nanoparticle wire arrays through a multi-step discontinuous VECD. Parallel nanoparticle wires and integrated nanoparticle wire arrays are formed after the first and the second deposition step, respectively.[ 47 ]